Fatal Page 21

  ‘Liar! You’re lying to me. I hate you! I hate you!’

  Alice’s cries cut through the air as she lurched forward, snatching the phone out of Abel’s hands as she ran into the grounds of the house.

  38

  ‘Look, she can’t have gone far. Lola, why don’t you look over by the summerhouse and swimming pool, I’ll go up to the woods towards the stables and Abel, you take the left side of the grounds and house.’ Alfie’s eyes darted as he scanned the land surrounding the large estate.

  He hadn’t got time to stand about feeling angry with himself for reacting like he did, or feeling sorry for himself, or feeling scared about Franny and Bree. All that had to wait, because the thing that mattered, the only thing that mattered right now, was finding Alice.

  ‘Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? Come on, let’s go!’ Alfie shouted, worry taking over.

  As Alfie and Lola headed off in separate directions, Abel watched them until they disappeared into the night. He turned slowly towards the house, strode across to the large stone-pillared front doors, kicked them open and stalked in.

  By the side of the grand wooden staircase where walking sticks and umbrellas hung, Abel pushed a pile of faded coats aside. He pulled out a shotgun, then checked to see if it was loaded. Satisfied, Abel Gray went to go and look for Alice.

  The private chapel in the grounds stood at the far corner of the wooded walkway. Seeing his way by moonlight, Abel entered. Urgently, he ran down the nave, past the coats of arms painted underneath the arch, to where a carved and painted reredos sat behind the altar.

  By the rose stained-glass window was a large stone dais with a wooden crucifix and a portrait of the Virgin Mary staring down. And in the front wooden pew was Alice Rose, crying and shaking as she knelt, eyes shut, hands tightly clasped together.

  ‘I thought I’d find you here. If you’re looking for God, well, he moved out of here a long time ago.’ Abel spoke gruffly.

  Startled, Alice stood up, glanced at the gun, then back at Abel, his eyes haunted as he continued, ‘I’m here to tell you about Nico.’

  Alice made a move to go. She didn’t want to hear it; she didn’t want to hear any more lies.

  ‘Where are you going, Alice? There’s nowhere for you to run, you have to listen whether you like it or not.’ Abel clicked off the safety, looking down at it then back up at Alice. ‘Unless of course you want to take a chance, and don’t think I won’t use it, because I will.’

  Afraid and bewildered, Alice answered Abel in a whisper. ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you doing it in here?’

  Abel laughed scornfully as he stepped closer to Alice. ‘In here? This place is just old stones and bricks. There’s nothing else, Alice. There is no God, only a burning, everlasting hell, and you would know that if you’d seen what I’d seen. I want revenge, Alice, and one day I will get that. La mia vendetta. I will bring down Nico for what he did.’

  Scared, Alice shook her head. ‘Stop! Stop! I don’t want to know what you say he did, because it’ll be a lie, like everything else, you’re all lying.’ Alice turned away, putting her hands over her ears as tears slid down her cheeks.

  Abel wildly pulled one of her hands away, his whole body shaking, the veins on his forehead bulging as his voice rose, echoing round the small stone chapel.

  ‘Listen, you need to listen! I worked for Nico and by working for him I sold myself to the Devil. I watched evil hard at work. He destroys people, Alice, rips the soul out of their very life.’

  Alice shook her head again, her tears pooling down onto the chapel stone floor. ‘He’s not what you say he is, he’s kind, he’s, he’s … I love him.’

  Shocked, Abel whispered hoarsely. ‘What?’

  ‘I love him.’

  Abruptly, Abel grabbed Alice’s hand, dragging her out of the chapel. She began to scream as he pulled her through the dark grounds and past the walled garden.

  ‘What the hell are you doing? Abel! Abel!’ Seeing Abel drag Alice, Alfie hollered at him as he and Lola came running from behind one of the summerhouses.

  Still gripping Alice, whose eyes were wide in terror, Abel swivelled round and pointed the gun at Alfie. ‘Stay back, Alfie, stay back if you know what’s good for her.’

  Alfie’s face paled. ‘Abel, for God’s sake, just leave her alone, let her go. Whatever it is that’s going on in your head, you’ve got to stop it. Abel, listen to me!’

  Ignoring Alfie, Abel pulled Alice along as he marched into the house whilst Alice continued to scream, pleading desperately.

  ‘Alfie! Alfie! Help me! Help me!’

  As Alfie and Lola ran behind, they watched Abel, like a man possessed, drag Alice by her hand through the dusty wooden corridors, through the great oak wooden doors towards the west wing.

  In the dark and dust of the once regal home, Abel kicked open a set of double doors and threw Alice into the room. His face strained and crazed, he raved, ‘This is what Nico does. Destroying and ripping the soul out of people’s lives. Look! Look! Look, Alice.’ He pointed, and Lola clung to Alfie’s arm as they stood helplessly in the doorway.

  Alfie stayed silent whilst Lola’s eyes went wide as she took in the scene before her. ‘Oh my Christ, Alfie! Oh my Christ!’

  At the end of the long boarded-up room, lying in an open wooden coffin, was the mummified body of Natalia.

  Abel opened his arms, spinning round to look at them as he walked backwards towards the coffin. ‘I’m here, Natalia, I’m here …’ He bent over the coffin, touching and kissing Natalia’s face, her skin like old, worn, stretched chamois leather. He continued to speak, but this time it was directed at Alice.

  ‘Look at her, look at her! This is my punishment, Alice. Natalia is my punishment, and I can’t sleep, I can’t rest until I have my revenge … I said, look at her!’

  Petrified, Alice shook her head, covering her face with her hands. ‘No! No!’

  Before Alfie had time to stop him, Abel, in fury, ran up to Alice, picking her up off the floor and pushing her towards the coffin. Holding Alice’s shoulders in his strong grip, he stood behind her, forcing Alice to look at Natalia.

  Leaning forward, he whispered in her ear. ‘They raped her, they cut her, they tortured her and they made me watch. Nico, Salvatore and Bobby. Then they left her to die like a wounded animal. I brought her here, back home. I tried to make her well again, but I’d already lost her. It was like she died that day in the lodge with Nico. She had no peace at the end. All she did was call my name and wander the house at night. I sat with her, tried to nurse her, but it made no difference. Then one day, I went into the chapel and she was hanging there, with a rope tied around her neck, her eyes bulging, her tongue hanging out.

  ‘And when I buried her, I knew I couldn’t leave her there, because she was afraid, you see, she was afraid of the dark, and I didn’t want her to be afraid anymore. So I brought her into the house, to be with me. At least Natalia’s safe here, where I can protect her and Nico can’t touch her anymore.’

  Abel’s voice broke on the last words and his eyes rolled back until only the whites of them were showing as he dropped to the floor, his head in his hands, deep, racking sobs filling the room.

  Alice stared back at Alfie and then at Lola in horror.

  ‘Is it true, Alfie? Is it true about Nico?’ she asked, her voice almost inaudible above Abel’s cries.

  Sadness preventing him from speaking, Alfie just nodded as he fought his own tears. Alice, shocked, walked to where Abel was slumped. She crouched down, took him in her arms and rocked him gently as she whispered into his ear. ‘And the Lord says we will show no pity, no mercy for the guilty. Our rule will be eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth … Life for life. And then we, the righteous, shall bathe our feet in the blood of the wicked.’

  39

  ‘Franny, do you want some water?’ Bree kept her voice down, not wanting Bobby Russo, who was sitting dozing at the far end of the warehouse, to hear.

  Just as quietly
, Franny replied, ‘No thanks, I’m fine. You have it. You need to keep yourself hydrated.’

  ‘I’m not ill, Franny.’

  ‘No, but you’re pregnant,’ Franny said matter-of-factly.

  Bree blinked, staring at Franny in puzzlement. ‘I don’t understand you.’

  Bristling, Franny hissed, ‘What is there to understand, Bree?’

  Bree shrugged. ‘You do know it’s okay to be upset?’

  It was Franny’s turn to stare in puzzlement, her tone hard. ‘Upset about what?’

  Raising her voice but seeing Bobby stir, Bree brought it back down into a whisper. ‘Franny, we’re locked in a cage, you’ve been beaten badly and you’ve just found out I’m pregnant by the man you love.’

  The tiniest flicker of hurt, though it was too dark for Bree to see it, passed through Franny’s eyes as she spoke coldly. ‘I thought you said you didn’t know who the father was.’

  ‘I don’t, but that’s not the point. The point is there’s a strong possibility that it could be Alfie’s and you act like you’re not upset about any of it.’

  ‘I already told you before, I don’t feel like other people feel.’

  Bree shook her head. ‘Don’t give me that. That’s just an excuse to bury your head in the sand.’

  Scornfully, Franny leant in towards Bree. ‘What do you know about me? You’ve known me for all of ten minutes and you think you can make a judgement on who I am? You have no idea about my life.’

  ‘No, but what I do know is that you go around being aloof, pretending you don’t care, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.’

  ‘Don’t kid yourself, Bree, that’s who I am, and rather that than be the martyr.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘All you’ve done since I’ve known you is tell anyone who’ll listen that you’re willing to give up Alfie for me. Well, let me tell you something, sweetheart, I’ve already given him up, so don’t do me any favours.’

  Tears pricked in Bree’s eyes. ‘That’s not fair!’

  ‘What is, Bree, what is?’

  Bree shook her head again. ‘This is what you do, isn’t it? You try to be as mean as you can to push people away, but I’m not going to let you.’

  Exasperated, Franny said, ‘What do you want from me, Bree?’

  ‘I want you to tell me that you care, that you care that Alfie cheated on you, that—’

  ‘He didn’t cheat on me. I’d told him I wasn’t coming back, remember? We weren’t together.’

  ‘In your heart you were.’

  ‘So, you know about my heart now as well as my life? Jesus, Bree, you’re some kind of special.’

  ‘Stop! Just stop being like this.’

  ‘Why? Why do you care? Why do you care how I feel? You didn’t before so why would you now?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Panicking at the rush of emotion beginning to churn inside her, Franny tried to turn her hurt into anger. ‘What I mean is, no matter what he told you, it was obvious to anyone that there was still something between Alfie and me. I know him, and he wouldn’t have been able to hide it, hide his hurt, and seeing as you think you’re so fucking clever at knowing people, why didn’t you see it when he talked about me? I’ll tell you why, shall I? Because you didn’t want to. Because it suited you for me to be out of the picture, so you could get in there, and Jesus Christ, didn’t you get in there quick! What did you do, Bree, throw away the contraceptive pills the minute you stepped over the front doorstep?’

  ‘It wasn’t like that.’

  ‘No, it never is with people like you. But you’ve got what you want now, so just leave me alone and maybe then I can figure a way to get you out of here, so you can play happy families with Alfie.’

  Bree reached over to touch Franny. ‘Please, don’t be like this.’

  ‘Get your hand off me. I don’t need your pity.’

  ‘That’s not what I’m doing, I’m just trying to say—’

  Swallowing her emotions, Franny cut in again. ‘What, Bree? What are you trying to say? You’re pregnant with Alfie’s baby, so there isn’t anything more to say, is there? But you know, it …’ Franny stopped abruptly.

  ‘What were you going to say? Franny, please, look at me … Franny,’ Bree whispered, emotion catching in her throat.

  ‘Nothing, I wasn’t going to say anything.’ Angry with herself, Franny felt tears brimming.

  ‘Franny, don’t push me away, talk to me.’

  With tears now running down her face, Franny blurted out the words she hadn’t known were there. ‘It hurts, okay. It really, really hurts, and the idea of you being with Alfie makes me feel like I can hardly breathe. I just wish that Cabhan hadn’t got involved with the Russos, because then I wouldn’t have had to choose between Alfie and helping Alice and Cab, and I wouldn’t have lost Alfie. And I know it sounds crazy, but I wish … I wish if anybody had to be pregnant it was me, not you. So now you know, happy now? Now you know how I feel.’

  Crying as much as Franny was, Bree pulled her into a tight hug, which Franny accepted gratefully as she wept quietly onto Bree’s shoulder. ‘I’m so sorry, Franny. I’m so sorry. If we get out of here, I promise it’ll be okay, somehow I’ll make it okay.’

  ‘Nico, it’s me, Alice. I’m sorry about before. They caught me calling you. They’ve been saying things, but I haven’t listened to them. I pretended I did, of course, but I don’t believe anything they say. Not anymore – you’re the one I trust.’

  With the sun streaming through his tiny cell window, Nico smiled and closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun’s rays as he imagined Alice.

  ‘Good, good, because the only people who matter now are you and me. And Alice, did you mean what you said?’

  Alice held the phone in her hand tightly and swivelled on her seat, lowering her voice as she spoke. ‘When?’

  ‘When you said that you loved me, Alice.’

  ‘Yes, yes, I meant it.’

  ‘Say it, Alice, say it. I want to hear you say it.’

  In the quietest of voices, Alice murmured, ‘I love you, Nico.’

  Nico groaned down the phone, pleasure rushing through his body. ‘You really are my special girl. Now not a word to anyone, not to Abel, not to Alfie, and although we’ve talked about how wrong it is to hold secrets, this is more about protecting what we’ve got, holding sacred our special bond …’

  The phone clicked off and Alice sighed, closing her eyes.

  ‘Well?’

  Quickly opening them, she stared at Alfie. ‘Well, he fell for it, he doesn’t suspect a thing.’

  Alfie nodded, glancing at Lola and Abel as they stood in one of the dining rooms in the south side of the house. ‘I say we get out of here as soon as we can. Now that Nico knows that Alice is staying with Abel, it won’t take long for Bobby and Salvatore to find their way here.’

  Pacing, Lola shook her head. ‘Why don’t we just wait for them to come? Cos they think Alice won’t say anything, so they won’t be expecting any kind of ambush. We can take them by surprise.’

  Abel stared coldly at Lola, his eyes void of emotion. He spoke in a deathly whisper.

  ‘This ain’t a game. We have no idea how many men they’ll bring, what weapons they’ll come with, and, unless you know something I don’t know, I’m thinking you’re not so handy with the old shotgun.’

  ‘I’m not saying I am, but if we continue running, they’ll continue searching, and if we do this right, it could be over with,’ Lola bit back.

  ‘Not an option.’

  Feeling overwhelmed, Lola raised her voice. ‘I don’t understand, you and Alfie have done stuff like this before without even blinking. It’s what you’ve done most of your life. I ain’t asking anything out of the ordinary, but the truth is, I’m scared, and I want this done with. I realise that there are only the two of you, but if we’re quick, we can round up some men. Surely we can? Alfie, why ain’t you saying anything? Why aren’t you agreeing with me?�
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  ‘Lola, listen to me. It will never be over whilst Nico is alive. He will keep on hunting, keep on searching until he’s got what he wants. He won’t stop until he has Alice.’ Abel walked round the table to Lola as Alfie, deep in thought, continued to stare out of the streaked and dusty window. ‘We have to think clearly, keep our heads, even if it feels like the long way around. We can’t go steaming in when there’s the safety of Franny and Bree to think of. One call from Nico and they’re both dead. Look, we have sixteen days to come up with—’

  ‘What do you mean, sixteen days? Why sixteen?’ Alice cut in, as scared as Lola looked.

  From the corner of his eye, Abel saw Alfie shake his head, and, taking Alfie’s cue, he answered Alice as casually as he could, his tone flat. ‘It’s just the timescale Alfie and me have put on things. Got to have some sort of deadline, that’s the way we’ve always worked. Back in the day that was. Anyway, I think you and Lola should get ready to go, we don’t want to be here when they come. But I have to go and do something. If I’m not back in half an hour, leave and I’ll meet you in the village by the old mill.’

  Alfie turned on Abel. ‘What are you talking about?’

  Uncomfortable with having to be in the company of people after spending so long on his own, Abel began to pace agitatedly. ‘Like I said, I have to go and do something.’

  ‘And I said, what?’

  Coldly, Abel stepped towards Alfie, his face curled up into a snarl as he toyed with the knife hidden in his pocket. ‘Just drop it, Alf, don’t make me angry, understand?’

  ‘Then tell me.’

  ‘It’s just something I need to go and do, that’s all, it ain’t got anything to do with you.’

  ‘Since when? We need to stick together. What is it that can’t wait?’

  A dark shadow crossed Abel’s face, his eyes narrowed. ‘Natalia.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I have to make sure Natalia’s all right.’